News Alerts

September 19 - CDC Releases Assessment of School Health Programs

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today released the findings of the School Health Policies and Programs Study (SHPPS) 2000, a comprehensive assessment of school health programs at state, district, school, and classroom levels nationwide. Data were collected from all 50 states, a nationally representative sample of school districts, and a nationally representative sample of public and and private elementary, middle/junior high, and senior high schools. SHPPS 2000 assessed characteristics of eight components of school health programs: health education; physical education and activity; health services; mental health and social services; food service; school policy and environment; faculty and staff health promotion; and family and community involvement.

The report is published in a special issue of the Journal of School Health and can be read on the CDC web site at www.cdc.gov/shpps.

September 10 - Statistics on Nation's Health Released

The National Center for Health Statistics in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today released its 25th annual statistical report on the nation's health. Highlights of the report are available via Acrobat Reader at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/pubs/pubd/hus/highlits.htm.

For the first time, this year's report features a comparison of the health status and services available to urban, rural, and suburban populations.

In a section on preventive health care, the report makes the following points relative to children:

• In 1998, 13 percent of children under 18 years of age had no health insurance.
• In 1999, 16 percent of school-age children six to 17 years of age had no health care visits to an office or a clinic during the past year.
• In 1998-99 about 8 percent of school-age children six to 17 years of age had no usual source of health care.
• In 1999, almost three-quarters of children two to 17 years of age had a dental visit in the past year.
• In the years from 1988 to 1994, nearly one-quarter of school-age children six to 17 years old had at least one untreated dental caries.

The full text of the report, "Health, United States, 2001, with Urban and Rural Health Chartbook," is available online at www.cdc.gov/nchs but because of its length is divided into sections that must be read or downloaded separately.